


Afire Love

by mariareynolds



Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-20
Updated: 2016-01-20
Packaged: 2018-05-15 03:09:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,313
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5769058
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mariareynolds/pseuds/mariareynolds
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Who's Alexander? In which Eliza Schuyler and Maria Reynolds fall in love.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Afire Love

“Please, could you take care of them? For just a couple hours?” Eliza pleaded, handing the fussing child in her arms and gently directing the small boy and girl at her side to her younger sister. “I just need 2 hours, at the most. To think.”  
Peggy raised an eyebrow at her, complying in taking the protesting child from her sister’s arms and placing him on her hip. “Shh,” she told him, running her fingers through his hair. “Yeah, of course. Me and Alex Jr. will have fun together! Right?” She touched his nose playfully with the tip of her finger, making him giggle. She looked up at Eliza. “You know you can always talk to me if it’s too much, you know? I haven’t seen you and Alexander getting along normally in months. If he’s not treating you like you deserve-"  
“I know, I know,” Eliza laughed a little. “He has been a little distracted. That’s just how he is. But I know where to find you,” She smiled at her sister, and ruffled the hair of her three children. “Thanks for taking them.”

—————————————

Eliza let out a sigh as she left Peggy’s house and walked out to the street, pulling her coat closer to her body to protect herself from the fall breeze. She didn’t have a plan as to where she was going, only that she needed to clear her head. Alexander /had/ been distracted. All he did for months was write in his study. Eliza had to drag him from his desk just to eat come to the dinner table, to read Philip a story at night. She wished her feelings for him hadn’t strayed from the night she’d first seen him in the ballroom, but she’d be lying if she said they hadn’t. She just longed for something…more. Someone who let her in.  
By the time Eliza remembered she was walking, her feet had led her to an old bookstore next to the market. She hadn’t been in here in almost a year, as Alexander had spun her world around and she had almost forgotten her passion for reading. She hesitantly walked up the wooden steps and though the threshold, letting the smell of fresh paper binding and flame from candles soothe and relax her.  
As she walked through the aisles upon aisles of books-old and new, thick and thin-she could remember coming here as a child, spending hours with her nose buried deep into adventure tales she still knew by heart. She smiled to herself a little, turning a corner to explore the other half of the shelving.  
“Hey!”  
Eliza gasped and jumped back, realizing that her foot and hit something on the ground. Looking down, she saw a woman in a red dress, legs sprawled out across the aisle of books and curly ringlets of dark hair pulled back to keep out of her face. She was holding an obviously well-loved book, the spine collapsing in her hands, and she was leaning carelessly on a tall shelf of books. Eliza started to apologize, mortified. “I-I’m sorry! I didn’t see you! Did I-“  
The woman on the ground giggled with delight at Eliza’s loss for words. “Don’t sweat it,” she said. I’m the one with all my shit everywhere.”  
Eliza didn’t know what to say. She was thrown off at the woman’s childlike yet mysterious demeanor, the way her hair was so effortlessly thrown into a band and fell behind her back, the redness of her lips. Eliza was almost positive her own face was as red as those lips.  
The lips formed into a smirk before Eliza’s eyes, and she snapped out her trance. “Hey, I think I know you. Aren’t you that Alexander Hamilton’s girl?”  
“Eliza,” Eliza stuttered, putting her hair behind her ear. “Eliza Schuyler, Hamilton. Yes, that’s me.” God, what was she doing?  
“Ah.” the girl replied, folding the corner of the page she was reading and closing it. “Uh, you’re not-“ Eliza started to protest her folding the page of a book she didn’t own, but something about the girl’s face told Eliza that she didn’t care.  
The girl set the thick book she was reading aside and stood up, absent-mindedly running her hands down her dress to flatten it out, then taking the band out of her hair and shaking her head, letting her curls bounce into place perfectly around her face. Perfect to Eliza, anyway. Her jaw almost dropped.  
“I’m Maria Lewis, Reynolds.” the girl said to her, mimicking how Eliza had nervously introduced herself. She extended her hand quickly and Eliza took it. In the brief seconds they shook hands, Eliza couldn't believe how soft the girl's were.  
“Reynolds, like James Reynolds?” Eliza said. She had briefly heard Alex mention the name before, something in one of his politics rants; but then again, it could just be a coincidence.  
Eliza saw Maria visibly wince at James’ name. Maybe not so much of a coincidence.  
“Yeah, I married him.” Maria said quickly. She made it very clear she wasn’t too fond of talking about it, which confused Eliza but also somehow comforted her. Maybe she was having second thoughts about her marriage, too.  
"So, what brings Eliza Schuyler, Hamilton to an old place like this?” Maria smirked, gesturing to the small book shop. Eliza then realized something; they were the only people there. This realization threw Eliza off, and there was a sudden silence and tension in the air, at least in her mind. “I-I used to come here as a child.” Eliza replied. “It’s relaxing.” Why was she losing her words? It was like she couldn’t think.  
“I agree,” Maria replied, holding onto the shelf behind her and tilting her head into the aisle, looking for signs of other human life in the building. “No one ever comes in here anymore. I’ve been here for hours, haven’t even seen a damn manager.” She swung her head back around to look at Eliza again, then darting her eyes around playfully. “I suppose you’d like to be left alone though,” Maria said. Eliza opened her mouth a little, like she was going to say something, but decided against it, fearing she’d just embarrass herself; that was all she’d seemed to do so far.  
“I’ll leave you to it, Mrs. Hamilton. Don’t have too much fun without me, okay?”  
She winked and let go of the shelf she was grasping, and began to walk down the main aisle towards the door. Eliza, almost in a daze, scanned the floor with her eyes, and bent down with surprising speed to pick up the book that Maria had been reading.  
“Hey, wait!” Eliza called, shuffling her feet after her. “Don’t you want this?”  
Maria looked at her, then took the book in her hands. She smiled to herself. “Gulliver’s Travels,” she remarked. “Thanks, but I’ve already read it, anyway. It’s my favorite, I recommend it.” She placed the book back in Eliza’s hands, which hadn’t moved from the position from which she had taken it. “Tell me how you like it, alright?” Maria turned around and walked through the threshold and down the steps, holding up her hand and waving her fingers as a goodbye.  
Eliza was left frozen at the doorstep, staring at the place Maria was moments before and down at the book she had left her. She could still smell the scent of Maria's hair as it had brushed her nose. She'd never smelled anything like it, and she'd certainly never gotten chills from the simple aroma of someone before. She shook her head quickly, as if to expel those thoughts from her mind. Even though she knew she was alone, Eliza still looked around to make sure no one saw her as she tucked the novel into her coat and rushed home as the sun was beginning to set.


End file.
